Portrait of Alim Khan, 1911

Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky, an innovator in the medium of early colour photography, documented the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Russian empire under the patronage of Tsar Nicholas II. The project had been intended to glorify imperial Russia but is now seen as a document of the end of an era; by the end of the decade, the tsar had been executed, the photographer had emigrated and the emir was living in exile

A three-colour portrait of Emir Mohammed Alim Khan (1880 –1944) taken in 1911. Khan was the last emir of the Manghit dynasty who ruled the Emirate of Bukhara (now part of Uzbekistan), a protectorate of the Russian empire. He was deposed by the Bolsheviks in 1920 and lived out the rest of his years in AfghanistanIllustration: Photograph: Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky/ Hulton Archive/ Getty Images